What to read this weekend: “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life”
Few of us would dare ride the waves at Ocean Beach in winter; a safer option would be to read William Finnegan’s stirring account of getting knocked about in those cold, dangerous waters. A chapter of Finnegan’s new book, “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life” (Penguin Press; $27.95), is devoted to his time spent in San Francisco in the 1980s, and there’s so much more to recommend in this eloquent, globe-trotting memoir. Not a surfer? No matter. You just be one by the time you finish this superb book.
— John McMurtrie